Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete eBook

“I wish she were a widow.” “The
little man made a gesture as if to protect himself
from the evil eye, but at the same instant he slipped
down from his pedestal, and exclaimed:

“There is a chariot, and I hear his big dog
barking. It is he. Shall I call Nefert?”

“No!” said Katuti in a low voice, and
she clutched at the back of a chair as if for support.

The dwarf shrugged his shoulders, and slunk behind
a clump of ornamental plants, and a few minutes later
Paaker stood in the presence of Katuti, who greeted
him, with quiet dignity and self-possession.

Not a feature of her finely-cut face betrayed her
inward agitation, and after the Mohar had greeted
her she said with rather patronizing friendliness:

“I thought that you would come. Take a
seat. Your heart is like your father’s;
now that you are friends with us again it is not by
halves.”

Paaker had come to offer his aunt the sum which was
necessary for the redemption of her husband’s
mummy. He had doubted for a long time whether
he should not leave this to his mother, but reserve
partly and partly vanity had kept him from doing so.
He liked to display his wealth, and Katuti should
learn what he could do, what a son-in-law she had rejected.

He would have preferred to send the gold, which he
had resolved to give away, by the hand of one of his
slaves, like a tributary prince. But that could
not be done so he put on his finger a ring set with
a valuable stone, which king Seti I., had given to
his father, and added various clasps and bracelets
to his dress.

When, before leaving the house, he looked at himself
in a mirror, he said to himself with some satisfaction,
that he, as he stood, was worth as much as the whole
of Mena’s estates.

Since his conversation with Nemu, and the dwarf’s
interpretation of his dream, the path which he must
tread to reach his aim had been plain before him.
Nefert’s mother must be won with the gold which
would save her from disgrace, and Mena must be sent
to the other world. He relied chiefly on his
own reckless obstinacy—­which he liked to
call firm determination—­Nemu’s cunning,
and the love-philter.

He now approached Katuti with the certainty of success,
like a merchant who means to acquire some costly object,
and feels that he is rich enough to pay for it.
But his aunt’s proud and dignified manner confounded
him.

He had pictured her quite otherwise, spirit-broken,
and suppliant; and he had expected, and hoped to earn,
Nefert’s thanks as well as her mother’s
by his generosity. Mena’s pretty wife was
however absent, and Katuti did not send for her even
after he had enquired after her health.

The widow made no advances, and some time passed in
indifferent conversation, till Paaker abruptly informed
her that he had heard of her son’s reckless
conduct, and had decided, as being his mother’s
nearest relation, to preserve her from the degradation
that threatened her. For the sake of his bluntness,
which she took for honesty, Katuti forgave the magnificence
of his dress, which under the circumstances certainly
seemed ill-chosen; she thanked him with dignity, but
warmly, more for the sake of her children than for
her own; for life she said was opening before them,
while for her it was drawing to its close.